Today is the last day of National Bike Month. The Sierra Club was honored to join with the League of American Bicyclists and the National Council of La Raza in promoting biking as a green transportation choice. In our joint report Pedaling to Prosperity, we noted that bicyclists save $4.6 billion dollars each year (pdf).

We heard some great stories from across the country about bike month. In Austin, a two-mile stretch of Sixth Street was closed down for Viva Streets, a day long festival of active transportation and -- as our Lonestar Chapter noted -- well, fun! We heard from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and more about biking in South Texas. We were pleased to not only reach folks in English about the importance of biking as a transportation choice, but also in Spanish.

Despite the good news from this past month, some Republicans in Congress are eyeing the small amount of federal dollars that support biking in their crosshairs for elimination. As it is, only 1.6 percent of federal transportation dollars go toward biking and walking infrastructure despite the fact 12 percent of trips are by biking and walking.

several freshman GOP members of the House had been attending conference meetings held primarily by staffers, creating an unexpected chilling effect during negotiations. We also reported that a number of House members have renewed efforts to take Transportation Enhancements, the most important source of federal funds for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, out of the transportation bill entirely.

Then yesterday we saw a victory against coal exports when the Seattle City Council voted "Unanimously (and Symbolically) Against Transport of Coal"- marking their disapproval of coal exports through their city and the region. We've seen amazing work by dedicated residents of the Pacific Northwest to get communities along the coal export rail lines to oppose or raise objections to new coal export facilities. With six new coal export terminals proposed that would ship 150 million tons of coal per year to Asia, these hard-working activists have been sounding the alarm all along the train routes - from points east, to Spokane, through the Columbia River Gorge; and from Portland, Oregon, to Bellingham, Washington.

Who could possibly argue that? No one wants diesel fuel in his or her drinking water. But our water sources are at risk as the natural gas industry takes advantage of gaping public health loopholes and violates the few existing environmental safeguards for fracking at an alarming rate.

So how could diesel fuel get into our drinking water, and what does it have to do with fracking? Well, the make-up of the fracking chemical cocktail is generally illusive. Diesel fuel is just one of many health-threatening components that can be a part of the cocktail. We know it's usually water-based, loaded with various chemicals and compounds that are forced into wells, cracking the shale formations and allowing trapped gas to escape. Many of these elements are harmful to human health - some are even cancer-causing.

But time and again, the natural gas industry has refused to disclose the contents of fracking fluids. Most recently, the Bureau of Land Management issued a proposed rule that would, for the first time, require companies to publicly disclose the chemicals - but only after the chemicals were pumped deep underground.

I've recently seen a few articles that claim that historically low coal consumption in the United States doesn't mean much because dramatic growth in global coal consumption is inevitable. Assertions like these rely on mind-boggling (and admittedly scary) global coal-consumption growth rates. But, for all the scary numbers, analysts are missing the writing on the wall about coal development around the world: Widespread grassroots opposition, dramatically rising costs, and increasingly competitive alternatives threaten "the inevitable." It's time to take a closer look, because international coal is far riskier than you might think.

First, what happens in the U.S. does matter globally. Given that the developing world has based its current plans on what the Western world has done, do we really think they aren't paying attention to what we are doing now? That's exactly why historic standards like the EPA's carbon-pollution rule have a cascading effect by demonstrating to the rest of the world that coal is not the right fuel source for modern countries (something the dramatic ramp-up in clean energy investment in China clearly shows).

What do developing countries see when they look to the West today? In the United States, plans for 168 new coal-fired power plants have been abandoned, and another 100 existing plants are scheduled for retirement due in large part to increased financial and environmental costs as well as intense grassroots opposition. The handful that have sneaked through have raised rates by as much as 30 percent because they simply aren't competitive in today's energy market. As a result, coal-fired power generation has fallen to its lowest share of overall generation in the past 35 years. Things are so bad for coal that fully constructed coal plants are being mothballed because they can't compete.

What many people don't realize is that the same thing is happening in Europe. Coal's share of generation has declined from 39.4 percent to 25.7 percent over the past 20 years. Of the 120 coal fired power plants proposed in Europe in 2007, none have been brought to the construction stage. In 2011, clean energy accounted for 71 percent of the new electricity capacity in the European Union, while another 22 percent was natural gas-fired generation. That's overwhelmingly not coal. The heart of this revolution is Germany, which now aims to generate 100 percent of its power from clean-energy sources by 2050 -- and is well on the way to meeting that goal.

Whispers are bouncing around the halls of Washington. Anxious hands are passing notes full of gossip. Facebook and Twitter are... a-twitter. Everyone wants to know: Who does Mitt like the most?

The list of suitors is long, and the courtship has been expensive. But if anyone can afford it, it's the super-wealthy dirty energy lobbyists and CEOs who are jostling to be Mitt's top picks for his energy team -- or even a spot in a Romney White House.

Whether it's by hosting high-dollar fundraisers or launching multimillion-dollar smear campaigns against President Obama, every cent spent by big polluters is a love letter to Romney. And the feeling's mutual. Mitt's been showing he cares by matchingthe big polluters' talking pointsline-for-line.

On the campaign trail, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been relentlessly peddling coal as the fuel source of the future. This morning he took that same message to a mining town in Western Colorado, arguing that new safeguards that protect American families from life-threatening coal pollution are hurting Colorado's economy.

Never mind that the local mayor and the chair of the state Republican Party say Romney's wrong – he's also ignoring the real growth industry that has been spurring the creation of tens of thousands of Colorado jobs, making sure the state gets the energy it needs, and keeping American families healthy.

The citizens of Colorado get it – 64% of them say clean energy means new American jobs. Even in Romney's home state of Massachusetts, clean energy is creating tens of thousands of new jobs at thousands of small businesses. The clean energy economy is already creating new American jobs while keeping our families healthy, but Romney is going to bat for the fuel of the 19th century that makes our kids sick.

-- Trey Pollard, Sierra Club

The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund seeks to educate voters about the records of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates by highlighting their extreme positions on public health and other issues of critical importance to the American people and encourage the public to find out more about the candidates and their positions on these issues.

Something's brewing in Bihar. After decades of being India's most notoriously 'backward' state, the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has tempered corruption, built roads and spurred development. Given the impressive achievements of his previous term, it's no surprise he rode to overwhelming victory in recent elections. What is surprising is that his campaign platform consisted of more or less a single promise – to deliver electricity access to the 82% of the over 100 million inhabitants of Bihar who lack it. With little fossil fuel reserves to speak of, Bihar will need to write a blueprint for a clean energy revolution to deliver on that promise.

As Shaibal Gupta, Secretary, of the Asian Development Research Institute puts it, Bihar now requires an infusion of energy to further 'lubricate' the wheels of development. That's putting it lightly. Bihar faces a 30% peak power deficit (highest in the country) due to its paltry 546 megawatts of installed capacity - about the size of one average coal plant. Worse, Bihar loses roughly 38% of the meager amount of energy it produces through transmission and distribution. That’s like taking almost half of this capacity and pouring it down a drain – while you pay for it.

The states chief minister has tried to construct new coal plants to reverse the situation but to no avail. Worse, India's coal crisis is raging, reducing the likelihood that any new coal plant Kumar is able to build will be able to secure coal at affordable rates. Add the lead time for a new coal plant (at least 5-7 years to complete) and it's pretty clear turning to renewable energy is the only way to make good on his campaign pledge.

The Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter went all out for National Bike Month last Sunday helping to shut down a two mile stretch of Sixth Street- one of Austin's biggest commercial and cross town streets- to car and truck traffic. Check out the chapters blog on this fun day of action where Texans walked, biked and skated showing their support for the many forms of pollution free transportation.

Love from the Texas Roller Derby ladies and Chris Riley!

Best friends walk together!

Serious love!

The Central Austin Youth League All Star Sluggers show their love for playing together (and their moms). These kids do everything with enthusiasm.

Just days after securing a contentious reauthorization the U.S. Export Import Bank (Ex Im) is back to its dirty energy lending. Yesterday the Board of Directors, voted to finance U.S.coal exporter, Xcoal Energy & Resources. Ex-Im Bank has not disclosed any environmental or health analysis of the impact of Xcoal’s sourcing of Appalachian coal. However, mining practices commonly employed in Appalachia include extremely destructive mountaintop removal mining that destroys streams, poisons the water and air, and harms human health. The Ex-Im Bank must consider and disclose whether its financing of Xcoal supports these harmful practices.

The decision to finance a U.S coal exporter follows the Ex-Im Bank's long and sordid history of dirty coal investments abroad. Communities in India are still fighting the enormous Sasan project and its environmental, social, and economic degradation. This project was followed by the even larger and more controversial Kusile coal project in South Africa.

Vehicle fleets represent only about 7 percent of the U.S. vehicle stock, but account for more than 35 percent of the nation's transportation-related fuel consumption. If the country is going to kick the oil habit, solutions are going to have to include vehicle fleets.

Siemens had this in mind when it developed an electric freight trucking system and tested it out in Germany. Now this system has a taker in the second largest city in the U.S.: Los Angeles. This "eHighway" concept connects diesel hybrid trucks with electric wires. As you can see in the video below, these trucks run on electric when connected and seamlessly switch back to diesel where there are no wires.

L.A. plans to put in place a pilot program and build it into Interstate 710, a stretch of road that bustles with trucks because of its proximity to the nearby ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

"We are increasingly interested in what vehicle fleets are and are not doing to reduce emissions and dependence on oil," said Gina Coplon-Newfield, who directs the Sierra Club's Electric Vehicles Campaign. "For many companies with light and medium duty vehicles, switching to electric will be a very smart way for them to save on fueling costs and slash their pollution output."

Electrification would not only put a huge dent in the country's oil use and emissions, it would translate into health-cost savings. Pollution from Los Angeles' two main ports affect millions of nearby people and "causes billions of dollars in health-related costs annually," according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District -- which hopes the city can get the eHighway "off the ground in the next 12 months."

Let's hope L.A. drives this forward fast, and that other municipalities use it as a model as they too search for cleaner and more efficient ways to move goods.